When I was little I used to ask my mom what it means to be a grown-up, and she never really had an answer for me. It doesn’t really have to do with age since I know plenty of 50-year olds who still act like they’re 10-years old sometimes, and I know plenty of 15-year olds who are more responsible than their parents. Being a parent doesn’t necessarily make you a grown-up now that kids are becoming parents at ages as young as 10 or 11 (as disturbing as that is!). If you are able to support yourself financially, does that make you a grown-up? I don’t know… but I’ve been thinking about this a lot now that I have a job and will be starting in less than a week. Does having a job make me a grown-up? Will I be a grown-up when we have kids that we support financially, emotionally and physically?

The dictionary definition doesn’t really help us much, since grown-up is basically just defined as the opposite of a child, but what does that mean exactly? Any thoughts?